Medieval weapons can be broadly divided into ‘personal’ weapons those carried by individuals and larger ‘impersonal’ or siege weapons, which had to be pulled onto the battlefield.

Personal WeaponsThe Weapons of Early ManThe weapons of mankind have changed a great deal since man first took up a rock to hunt with. They have grown more sophisticated and have increased in complexity of use, maintenance and in range and area of effect. This Entry will show the similarities between the weapons of the past and those of modern times, as well as follow the evolution from the incredibly personal combat of the past to the push button ‘neutralizations’1 of today.

In the beginning man had only his body and wits to hunt with, but fortunately his wits quickly devised tools with which to increase his ability to hunt, such as the stone (not actually invented, more found), club and spear. Each could be used both as an extension of the body, as well as a weapon of range, limited though it might be. The stone could be used both to throw and, held in the hand, to bash animals with. The spear is a straight stick with a sharpened end. Later, the sharpened end might be hardened by fire. After man began hardening the sharpened end in fire, he tied a sharpened rock to a notched end; this can be thrust into an animal’s innards or can be thrown into the animal’s flank or limbs, depending on how close you are, or on how much of a risk taker you are. And finally the club: a short, thick piece of tree branch that is used to apply blunt trauma to the enemy or prey, usually about the head or back where it is most likely cause sufficient damage for the nerves to cease functioning. The club can be thrown, but would mostly be used in the hand. These weapons where suitable for hunting and were all primitive man required. However, as mankind evolved as a society, it required an increasing amount of sophistication in its weapons, not only to hunt, but also to defend against other human beings bent on taking what they had sought to acquire.

The sling and javelin evolved from the rock and spear, and were used throughout history by the vanguards of armies to harass and to cause whatever casualties they could. As time went on, however, advances in armour and shields eventually nullified the threat of rocks and javelins. The sling, of course, throws rocks with great speed and accuracy, and could stun or knock out the enemy or prey long enough for soldiers or hunters to close for an easy kill. The javelin is a short spear almost entirely used for throwing at that which needs to die.

Early on in the days of the ‘caveman’ an exact date cannot be given due to the incomplete nature of history, as cavemen predate all forms of dating and history a certain black rock was noticed to be useful in skinning animals, cutting hides and about anything else that needed to be stabbed, cut or otherwise opened by forceful means. This rock later became known as obsidian or flint. When struck along the grain, the rock chips into flakes, which are natural razors with very sharp edges and are relatively strong when not struck on the grain. These flakes were sometimes lashed onto a wooden handle so that the wielder wouldn’t cut themselves while using it. This was the first knife (and spear head) and, like other primitive weapons, was mostly used in hunting and preparing food. Often, the tool would be used as both fork and knife, a tradition that lasted well into the 1300s in England, France and other European countries.

The KnifeAs the use of metals pervaded human civilization, obsidian was given up in favour of copper, brass, bronze and, eventually, iron and steel. The knife is a simple weapon: a handle, a hand guard and a blade. The blade can be single or double edged, serrated or not, depending on its intended use. Knives were even attached under the barrels of rifles: these are called bayonets. Modern combat knives also serve this purpose and are in the basic equipment of every army on Earth.

The SwordThe sword is a natural development from the knife. Over years of advances in smith craft, the knife became the long knife, and from there the shortsword. The shortsword was useful mostly for thrusting, but was sharpened on the edges to slash at the enemy too. Like knives, swords can be single or double edged, long or short, for a variety of different styles and purposes. ‘What could you use a sword for other than stabbing and cutting?’ you ask. It’s not so much about their intended use they are all still for killing the enemy and defence but the differences are in how they are intended to kill. The trend in sword design is that of ‘long good, short bad’ and it is safe to say that it supports the theory of the evolution of weapons throughout history to be longer range and more powerful.

The sabre and scimitar the former is European and the latter Arabian in style. They are both used primarily for slashing and are often employed by cavalry, where the speed of the horse can drastically increase the weapon’s ability to penetrate armour.

The falchion a weapon that looks a great deal like an enormous machete. It was used to penetrate chainmail by the English, French and some of the western Germans, but it is almost useless against plate armour. The nature of the curved blade was particularly good for cavalry, because if the blade hit any of the chinks in the armour, it would most likely drive through and cause a vicious wound. If it hit the armour at a stronger point it would almost certainly knock the man down while the blade slid easily away to leave the cavalryman on his horse.

Bastard or ‘hand and a half’ blades (sometimes also called longswords or broadswords) swords with longer than normal blades, a hilt that can accommodate two hands and a heavy ball on the bottom (the pommel), which is both a counterbalance and mace that can be used to bash the heads of enemies. The broadsword for most knights was the perfect balance of length and weight, as well as being equally useful at thrusting and slashing. It could penetrate most armour with a sufficiently powerful blow, could be swung incredibly fast and could defend against most other swords and weapons. The longsword was wielded most effectively by the Teutonic order who, with their great strength and superior training, could wear heavy armour and use heavy weapons with equal or greater speed than others with less armour.

The claymore used most famously by the Scots, especially William Wallace, whose claymore was six feet long from tip marc jacobs to pommel. Claymores are massive swords that are almost like axes in their weight and the manner in which they are used. The heavy weight of the blade can be used to pierce plate while the reinforced tip can be used to pierce through mail. A blow with a claymore could cleave through plate and shield easily. It would swiftly batter an enemy’s weapon aside and the concussive force alone could crush ribs, cause internal bleeding, and even collapse lungs. The length of the weapon also had the advantage of keeping the wie marc jacobs lder at a safe distance from anything less than a large battle axe, a spear or a pole arm.

The gladius2 the classic Roman weapon, a mainstay of their legions throughout the Empire. The gladius is a shortsword one to one and a half feet long. While it can be used to slash it is primarily a thrusting weapon. The Romans first took it up to battle the Greek ‘phalanx’, which was a formation of Hoplites3. The phalanx was a formation like a box or a turtle; some even call it a turtle formation. The front rank bore heavy shields to protect the back ranks. The next two ranks carried long spears that projected through the spaces between the shields. Those behind the front three ranks were there, swords ready, in case the front ranks were penetrated. The Romans waited until they were very close to the spears, then battered them away or broke them with their shortswords and reached around the shield wall and stabbed the shield bearers before they could draw their swords. Used in combination with the classic Roman tower shield, the heavy protection the shield provided meant that Romans could easily get inside the enemies’ weapon arc and swiftly get inside the enemy soldier’s individual defences and stab them with relatively little chance of them countering.

The rapier and some similar weapons excellent for duelling. They are thin, light blades that are sharp, sturdy and good for stabbing, slashing and deflecting enemy blades. This puts the duellist in a better position to deliver a lethal strike. A man with a strong wrist and forearm can be quite lethal with one.

Duelling was a common practice from the earliest days of the royalties of Europe (mid 400s AD) to the mid 19th Century. In duels, a matter of honour would often be settled in full view of the court. Duellists would use swords and perhaps a back up knife. Which sword they used was their own choice, but light, fast weapons such as rapiers or sabres would be most often used to give the best advantage of speed and cutting ability. While it was often a stab that ended a duel, it was the multitude of painful knicks, cuts and slashes that brought the soon to be dead to the point where they could no longer block to deflect a stab.

Swords are used even today. Many are collected as valuables or just something pretty to adorn a wall. Millions of children the world over play with wooden broomsticks as swords, and fencing, which uses a dulled form of the rapier, is an Olympic sport.

The AxeThe axe is another weapon that has its roots in a tool. The axe was originally used to chop down trees and to hunt and prepare food. Originally it was a sharpened stone, possibly obsidian, lashed to a stick with vine or entrails. It was effective at cutting branches and in hunting and skinning, but it soon found its way into battle. As metallurgy progressed, the axe was made increasingly more durable and could thus be used more effectively and with less risk of damage to the weapon in combat. There are a variety of different kinds of axe double and single bladed, single and double handed. Some of the most famous axe wielders were the Vikings, especially their Berserkers.

The Vikings used mostly hand axes with shields. Their single handed, single bladed axes were well crafted, very strong, very durable, very sharp and, in the hands of their skilled warriors, very lethal. The axe could cleave through both mail and plate with surprising speed and ease because it inflicted damage as much from concussion and impact as it did from cutting and cleaving. An axe blow on a shield was demoralizing and after four or five your shield arm could well go numb. The design of the double bladed axe is so that you can attack someone on the back swing, just as with a double edged sword. This means that you have twice the killing capacity as you would if only using a single bladed axe. The two handed axe, like the two handed sword, came about as a way to provide a weapon that can easily cleave through shield, mail, plate, flesh, bone, trees, horses and just about anything other than walls and mountains.

The largest axe of the two handed sort is the Danish Bearded Axe. This was the weapon of choice of the most elite of pre Norman warriors known as Housecarls. These were incredibly tall, incredibly built warriors that practised with their huge axes for as much as twelve hours a day. Their axes were swung in a figure eight in battle and would kill horse and man with equal speed. The Housecarls nearly won the Battle of Hastings in 1066, but they had the misfortune of being outflanked by William of Normandy. The axe was also the key instrument of execution until hanging was taken up as a more humane form of state execution. But the trend in the design of axes is obvious; they got bigger, longer and more powerful, with the intent of a single blow from outside the enemy’s range being the only necessary swing. The lengthening of the pole and increasing of force of impact to create a nearly unstoppable weapon is another example of the increase in reach and power inherent to the evolution of all weapons.

The extending range of axes as weapons is even better illustrated by the Frankish throwing axes. Frankish warriors had designed and implemented the use of a throwing axe that had a modest range of about 50 yards with a good throw and clear line of sight. The weight was centred on the axe head so when thrown it pulled the axe through the air like a spinning tyre and struck the target with sufficient force to penetrate both mail and plate. Few warriors facing the Franks expected a sudden volley of axes to be thrown at them so it was quite a surprise advantage at the outset of any battle. Eventually, armies started to use shield walls to prevent axe casualties, which put them at the distinct disadvantage of being on the defensive.

Blunt InstrumentsMaces, hammers, flails and similar blunt force weapons are not so much weapons that got longer and bigger, but reflect weapon evolution in that they are specialized: the depleted uranium ammunition of their time. The mace is a wood or metal stick about an inch wide and twelve to eighteen inches long. The mace has a leather loop so that it won’t fly off the wrist when being swung and the part that strikes the enemy can be a sphere, a sphere with spikes, a flanged hexagonal shape or a small ball with angled blades radiating from it along longitudes. This weapon is almost purely blunt force; it was conceived of and used almost exclusively by warrior priests and warrior monks as a more civilized manner in which to kill. They considered that killing without drawing bloo marc jacobs d was a more holy way to go about it.

The hammer is the same idea as the mace but with a different design. Here it is essentially a giant hammer, like the modern ones, with a flat banging thing on one side and a bec de corbin on the other, which translates as ‘crow’s beak’. The hammer end is to smack people with and cause blunt trauma, which can crush ribs, cause internal bleeding and crush lungs. The crow’s beak is used to actually pierce the armour and cause bloody, painful, debilitating wounds.

The flail is a mace but with a chain between the ‘business end’ and the handle. When swung it gathers even greater force on its way to the target and is almost certain to kill or mortally wound when one achieves a skull or thoracic hit.

Spears and Lances These are pretty simple weapons; strictly for piercing, not at all useful for slashing. The spear is like a giant arrow, with a metal head on the end of a wooden shaft. Spears can be used to throw from a wall or from on horseback, or can be used in the melee (the battle on foot) to keep the enemy back and stab them in the guts. As described above, the spear was one of the key instruments in the phalanx. The throwing spear is different to the javelin in that it had greater weight and thus more impact force, which can still penetrate the weaker points of armour.

The Romans had a special throwing spear that was a super weapon in their time: the pilum, a two feet long steel shaft with a barbed end attached to a two to three feet long wooden handle. When thrown, the spear head could penetrate through shields and mail due to its length and sharpness and the handle would break off on impact so that the enemy couldn’t throw it back. It was a devastating weapon that helped win many battles for the Roman legions. The lance is similar to the spear in its intended use, but slightly different in its design.

The lance was a longer wooden pole with a metal tip specifically designed to plough through plate, mail and flesh. The opposite end from the tip was weighted so that it could be used one handed. There was a flared piece between the hand guard and the pole as it got closer to the tip as a balance point and to add some protection for the hand. The lance is used entirely by cavalry, as it would be foolish for an infantryman to attempt to use one except against a cavalry charge at the beginning of a battle. The lance, when wielded by armoured knights on horseback and gathered in large numbers4, became a battle ending weapon. On the field of battle, few armies could stand before a massed force of heavily armed and armoured cavalry until a longer form of the lance was created. When this longer lance did come into use it turned the tide of battles from those who had cavalry to those who did not. The use of throwing spears, pilum and the lance are more examples of the use of longer and longer ranged weapons to keep the enemy at a safe distance.

Pole armsTrue to their name, these weapons are on the ends of poles. There are numerous different kinds of pole arms for numerous uses.

First is the glaive, essentially a sword on a stick. In addition to being able to pierce armour like a spear, it could also chop and slice through the enemy with its curved and sharpened edges. It was a weapon particularly effective against cavalry, not only because you could slash the horse’s feet out from under him, but also because you could blindside the rider with it, knocking them off with the pole or getting in a chink in the armour and wounding them.

Next is the halberd, which is like marc jacobs an axe on a stick. The force of the swing is greater with this weapon and can cause greater damage to both armoured and unarmoured opponents. Often there is a spike on top of the pole and on the other side of the axe blade to give a more precise armour piercing weapon, as well as to give the user something to kill an opponent with on the backswing.

Marks Spencer, known to a lot of people as Marks and Sparks or M is one of the UK’s leading marc jacobs retailers, with over 600 stores in the UK and over 200 more in 40 other countries. Although perhaps not the most fashionable place to shop, M is well known for both its quantity basic clothing comes in most colours, sizes and styles and its quality particularly in the Food Hall, where the produce is often considered superior to that in many other supermarkets (but is accordingly more expensive). They have so many outlets today that it is surprising to know that it was just a market stall a little over 100 years ago. Since then, a lot of things have happened to it to make it into the phenomenon it is today.

The Beginning Of A New BusinessMichael Marks founded the business from humble beginnings. Born in Slonim, Russia in 1859, he emigrated as a young man to Leeds, where he joined a company that employed refugees. He was taken on by the warehouse owner Isaac Dewhurst, who employed Marks to sell goods to the surrounding villages.

In 1884, Marks started his own business a penny bazaar stall at Leeds Kirgate market. As soon as this was established he was looking to expand. He opened a shop at 20 Cheetham Hill Road, Manchester, in partnership with Tom Spencer, a former cashier recommended by Dewhurst, and then opened another in Cross Arcade, Leeds, marking the change from a market stall to a wealthy business.

Neither founder survived long into the 20th Century: Spencer died in 1905 and Marks two years later. William Chapman took the helm until 1916, when Michael Marks’ son Simon became chairman. Ten years later the business was floated as a public limited company. Marks Jr was to remain in charge until 1964, when Israel Sieff took over as chairman.

Under Simon Marks’ stewardship, the business grew into a retail empire, acquiring other chains of penny bazaars across the country, and introducing many of the lines which the store is still associated with today. Textiles were first sold in 1926, and food and canned goods from 1931. The famous St Michael trademark first appeared on textiles in 1928, and then spread to other goods, including food in 1941. It had replaced all other brands by 1956.

Fitting To StandardsDuring the 1930s, Marks Spencer introduced a number of innovations. It has been seen by many as a g marc jacobs ood company to work for, and in 1933, Simon Marks commissioned Flora Solomon to set up an employee welfare service, which provided a range of services from pensions to camping holidays.

During this period many new synthetic materials were coming on to the market. In 1934, Marks Spencer became the first retailer to open their own scientific research laboratory to develop and test new fabrics.

From 1935, Marks Spencer’s caf bars produced cheap, hygienic and nutritious mass catering, something which became popular at the time of food rationing during the Second World War. The business was always looking for new ways to produce food and clothing that would fit into the wartime specification but still retain their standards. After the war, in 1948, they held a food self service trial and this, too, was a success.

One phrase which has become synonymous with the store is ‘you can always take it back’. Marks Spencer’s no quibble exchange or refund policy was introduced in 1953. This was particularly welcome as stores did not have fitting rooms these only appeared towards the end of the 1970s.

In 1959, Marks Spencer became the first retailer to introduce a no smoking rule, and in 1961 they banned dogs, with the exception of guide dogs, for hygiene reasons. Food sell by dates first appeared in 1970.

Many of their best known food lines were introduced in the 1970s. In 1973, they started selling wine for the first time, and a year later, Indian and Chinese meals, using some of the recipes we still eat today.

A New EraThe 1980s were a very profitable period for Marks Spencer. In 1986, they introduced funiture in their stores, and in 1988 they became the first British retailer to make a pre tax profit of 1 billion. Also in this year they became truly international by opening a flagship store in Hong Kong1.

In 1999, they launched a new website, opening a new era in online shopping. Moving into the 21st Century, Marks Spencer successfully launched a number of branded clothing ranges, including Per Una for women, and Blue Harbour and Autograph for men.

It was not always possible to meet everybody’s expectations of quality, however, and one complaint in particular came from a very unexpected source. A private e mail from Jeremy Paxman, BBC Newsnight and University Challenge prese marc jacobs nter, was leaked to the press with his claim that their underpants ‘no longer provide adequate support’. It went on to describe his friends’ ‘widespread gusset anxiety’. Paxman did settle the issue in a personal meeting with Marks Spencer boss Stuart Rose, but the episode earned him no little ridicule from fellow journalists.

The perceived drop in quality, as indeed much of the retailer’s commercial success could be put down to its global sourcing of products. In 1999, Marks Spencer published a code of practice for global sourcing to improve conditions for workers overseas, and in 2006 launched the Look Behind The Label campaign to describe the wider ethical credentials behind each product.

Not only that, but in 2007, Marks Spencer launched their most ambitious ethical campain to date: the five year, 100 point eco plan known as Plan A2. Its five main goals are continually measured, and progress is reported on their website marc jacobs :

Become carbon neutral

Send no waste to landfillHelp improve the lives of people in our supply chain

Help customers and employees live a healthier life style

Despite seeing an 18% fall in the share price 12 months into the plan, Marks Spencer have pledged commitment to it. In May 2008, the store introduced a 5p charge per plastic bag, with the profits going to the charity Groundwork UK. Six months later, the result was an 80% reduction in plastic bags and 500,000 raised for the charity. Plan A has been welcomed by many concerned with saving the planet and we can only hope that other stores will follow in Marks Spencer’s footsteps.

1Their first store outside the UK was opened in Dublin in 1979.2So named because ‘there is no Plan B’.

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